Spelling
Lesson 30
There are a great many words in English which are frequently mispronounced; the accent is placed upon the wrong syllable; for example, thea’ter instead of the’ater; the wrong sound is given to the vowel, for example, hearth is pronounced hurth. Sometimes, too, an extra letter is added in the pronunciation; for example, once is often pronounced as though it were spelled wunst.
The following is a list of common words that are frequently mispronounced, and there are many others which you may add to this list as they occur to you. Look up the correct pronunciation in the dictionary and pronounce them many times aloud.
In the second column in this list is given the incorrect pronunciation, which we often hear.
| Acoustics | a-cow-stics |
| Aeroplane | air-e-o-plane |
| Apron | a-pron |
| Athlete | ath-a-lete |
| Autopsy | au-top’-sy |
| Awkward | awk-ard |
| Column | col-yum |
| Coupon | coo-pon |
| Deficit | de-fic’it |
| Diphtheria | dip-ther-y |
| Economic | ee’co-nom-ic |
| Errand | ur-rant |
| Faucet | fos-set |
| Figure | fig-ger |
| Film | fill-um |
| Finance | fi’nance |
| Guardian | guar-deen’ |
| Height | heighth |
| Hostile | hos-tile’ |
| Hundred | hund’erd |
| Idea | i-dee’ |
| Inaugurate | in-aug-er-ate |
| Inquiry | in’qui-ry |
| Inventory | in-ven’-to-ry |
| Length | lenth |
| Magazine | mag’-a’zinn |
| Mischievous | mis-chie’-vi-ous |
| Municipal | mu-ni-cip’-al |
| Opponent | op’-ponent |
| Overalls | over-hauls |
| Rheumatism | rheumatiz |
| Stomach | stum-ick |
| Twice | twict |
| Vaudeville | vaw’de-ville |
There are a number of words in English which sound very much alike and which we are apt to confuse. For example, I heard a man recently say in a speech that the party to which he belonged had taken slow poison and now needed an anecdote. It is presumed that he meant that it needed an antidote. Some one else remarked that a certain individual had not been expelled but simply expended. He undoubtedly meant that the individual had been suspended.
This confusion in the use of words detracts from the influence which our statements would otherwise have. There are a number of words which are so nearly alike that it is very easy to be confused in the use of them. In our spelling lesson for this week we have a number of the most common of these easily confounded words. Add to the list as many others as you can.
Monday
Lightening, to make light
Lightning, an electric flash
Prophesy, to foretell
Prophecy, a prediction
Accept, to take
Except, to leave out
Tuesday
Advice, counsel
Advise, to give counsel
Attendants, servants
Attendance, those present
Stationary, fixed
Stationery, pens, paper, etc.
Wednesday
Formerly, in the past
Formally, in a formal way
Addition, process of adding
Edition, publication
Celery, a vegetable
Salary, wages
Thursday
Series, a succession
Serious, solemn
Precedent, an example
President, chief or head
Partition, a division
Petition, a request
Friday
Ingenious, skillful
Ingenuous, honest
Jester, one who jests
Gesture, action
Lose, to suffer loss
Loose, to untie
Saturday
Presence, nearness
Presents, gifts
Veracity, truthfulness
Voracity, greediness
Disease, illness
Decease, death
The End and the Beginning
As we look back over the study of these thirty lessons we find that we have covered quite a little ground. We have covered the entire field of English grammar including punctuation. But our study of English must not conclude with the study of this course. This is simply the foundation which we have laid for future work. You know when students graduate from high school or college the graduation is called the Commencement. That is a peculiarly fitting term, for the gaining of knowledge ought truly to be the commencement of life for us.
Some one has said that the pursuit of knowledge might be compared to a man’s marriage to a charming, wealthy woman. He pursued and married her because of her wealth but after marriage found her so charming that he grew to love her for herself. So we ofttimes pursue wisdom for practical reasons because we expect it to serve us in the matter of making a living; because we expect it to make us more efficient workers; to increase our efficiency to such an extent that we may command a higher salary, enter a better profession and be more certain of a job.
All this is well; but we often find that after we have pursued wisdom for these reasons, practical as they are, we have fallen in love with her for her own sake. We begin to take pleasure in her society; we begin to want to know things for the sake of knowing them, for the pleasure that it brings us, quite divorced from any idea of monetary gain.
So while we have urged upon you the study of English because of the great practical benefit that it will be to you, we trust that you have also grown to love the study for its own sake.
Make this but the beginning of your work in the study of English.